How Living In Stars Hollow  Has Affected My Life
by symphonyflute
Summary: HC. Rewrite to end of Teach Me Tonight. In New York, Jess ends up hurt and homeless. And how will an essay bring him, Luke, Rory, and Lorelai back together? Yeah, the summary kinds of sucks, but it's a must read for anyone who lives HC. Rating for safety
1. Chapter 1

Title: How Living In Stars Hollow Affected My Life

Author: Symphonyflute

Fandom: Gilmore Girls

Season: 2ish

Disclaimer: I wish, put it that way.

Summary: I changed the actual plotline of the story a little. In the episode towards the end of season 2, Luke sends Jess back to New York. He comes back in season 3 and all is well. I'm going to change that. He didn't go back, live happily with his mommy for a few weeks, and decide to pop back into Stars Hollow. Instead he had a terrible time including getting hurt, and homeless, and wrote a mandatory essay about what has affected his life most. This somehow, I'm not telling how, brings him and Luke, Lorelai, and Rory back together.

A/N: I hate OCs with flaming passion, and I put in 3. You're welcome.

A/N 2: This story will be very dialouge-based. For some reason, GG fics are dialouge-y for me.

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"I wonder where hansters come from," Lorelai Gilmore pondered as she and her daughter entered Luke's Diner on Tuesday morning for breakfast.

"Other hamsters," Luke replied as he swept by them with a pot of coffee.

They sat down. "I know _that_." Lorelai rolled her eyes. "How stupid do I look?"

Rory smirked. "Well, you did only put makeup on one eye. So do you really want an answer to that question?"

Lorelai groaned. "Are you kidding?" She pulled a compact out of her purse. "You're not kidding. You could have told me earlier. Like, before we left the house."

"Yes I could have," Rory agreed.

"So mean to mommy." She fished around in her purse for a minute until she found a stick of eyeliner and a tube of mascara.

Luke approched while she was doing this. "I don't see why women waste time and money slathering paint on their faces when they look just as fine, and natural might I add, without it."

"Says the thirty six year old bachelor," she retorted.

"Yeah yeah yeah. What do you want?"

"Pancakes please," Lorelai's voice went from bitch to playful, indicating that their mock-flight was over.

"I'll have eggs," Rory added. "Thanks Luke." As soon as he was out of earshot, the young brunette turned to her mother. "That was rude."

"Yes, but things have been so strained between us lately," Lorelai explained. "And I feel that now we're over it enough that I can talk to him like that again. I was celebrating."

"You have a weird way of celebrating," Rory said, shaking her head.

"Yes I do," Lorelai agreed. "Maybe New Guinea."

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but maybe New Guinea what?" Rory asked.

"Maybe that's where hamsters come from. Maybe that's the land of origen for all domestic rodents, but since guinea pigs are bigger and cost more money the country was named after them instead of being called No Rodent."

"That must be it."

"What must be it?" Luke was back with their breakfasts.

"New Guinea was named after hamsters and chinchillas," Rory filled him in.

"Oh, of course. Why wouldn't it be?"

Not questioning the Gilmores at all, as he had learned time and time again was a terrible idea, he simply left them their food and coffee and went to the counter to wipe it down.

"Do you have any nieces?" Kirk, who was sitting at the counter drinking the same cup if coffee he had order half an hour ago, asked.

"Nope."

"Young cousins?"

"Nope."

Kirk thought a minute. "Long lost teenage daughters?"

Luke dropped the rag on the counter and sighed. "Not that I know of. What do you want Kirk?"

Kirk looked offended. "Nothing. I was just wondering why that girl keeps pacing in front of your door."

Luke looked up. Sure enough, a teenage girl was walking up to the door, pausing, and walking away again, only to repeat the process. He had never seen her before in his life. She must have felt her eyes, because at that moment she looked up, saw him looking, and came in.

"Can I help you?" Luke offered askance.

"I hope so," She had a British sounding accent, he noticed. Combined with her curly red hair, dark green eyes, and nice smile, she really was pretty. But Luke definately didn't know her. "I'm looking for a Luke Danes."

"I'm Luke Danes," he replied. "But I don't think I know you." By now, everyone in the diner was watching.

"You don't. How rude of me not to introduce myself." She held out her hand. " Kimberly Anderson. I'm a friend of your nephew."

Luke frowned, but shook her hand grufly just the same. "What did he do this time?"

"He won a statewide essay contest," she answered, flashing a brilliant grin. "It was about how everything we've encountered in our lives so far have shaped who we became. He wrote about you."

Luke was awestruck. "Me?"

Rory looked at her watch and frowned. "I have to go catch the bus."

"I'll fill you in later hon," Lorelai promised, before turning her attention back to the scene that was happening in the front.

"Not just you," Kimberly was saying. "His parents. New York. Stars Hollow in general. But mostly you. And it's really flattering. I thought you might want to read your bit." she pulled a packet of paper stapled together and flipped open to the third page out of her bag. "I have to ask you to only read this page and that next though."

"Why's that?" Luke asked.

"Because it was nearly impossible to convince Jess to give me this paper to show you. If you read any more than what he finally agreed to he'll never forgive me. Don't worry though, there's nothing bad about you after these pages or anything like that."

"Then what are they about?"

Kimberly frowned. "Maybe I'll just hold these and you can read them that way," she suggested.

Luke shook his head. "Doesn't matter. I don't want to read it."

She looked confused. "You don't want to?"

"He caused me enough aggrevation when he was here. I don't need it any more."

Kimberly nodded. "Sure, alright. Well, um, if you change your mind, here's my cell phone number." She wrote some digits on a receipt from her pocket.

"Sure. Thanks." He stuffed it in his pocket.

Lorelai walked up to the counter just as Kimberly was leaving. "Are you kidding me?" she demanded. "You're seriously not going to read it?"

"Of course not. Why would I?"

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe because there's an essay about you that the entire state of New York may have read but you have no idea what it says? WHo knows what everyone knows about you now."

"That's assuming that Jess actually noticed something about me worth knowing, and that's a strech."

"Whatever you say. I have to go to the Dragonfly. See you later."

"See you," Luke replied absentmindedly, refilling Kirk's coffee cup.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: How Living In Stars Hollow Affected My Life

Author: Symphonyflute

Fandom: Gilmore Girls

Season: 2ish

Disclaimer: I wish, put it that way.

Summary: I changed the actual plotline of the story a little. In the episode towards the end of season 2, Luke sends Jess back to New York. He comes back in season 3 and all is well. I'm going to change that. He didn't go back, live happily with his mommy for a few weeks, and decide to pop back into Stars Hollow. Instead he had a terrible time including getting hurt, and homeless, and wrote a mandatory essay about what has affected his life most. This somehow, I'm not telling how, brings him and Luke, Lorelai, and Rory back together.

A/N: I hate OCs with flaming passion, and I put in 3. You're welcome.

A/N 2: This story will be very dialouge-based. For some reason, GG fics are dialouge-y for me.

A/N 3: ReviewsHappy

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That night, as the exact same people from breakfast were eating dinner, Lorelai had moved on from hamsters to a topic she had decided was much more appropriate.

"I really don't understand why the 's' is necessary. It's not supposed to be plural. It's only one object of clothing. It's not like socks where you can wear just one sock. So why?"

"I do not know," Rory replied. "Maybe because saying you're going to put on pant sounds funny?"

"We send you to this expensive school and all you learn from your fancy english class is what sounds good and sounds funny?"

"Yes mom. Clearly the reason I don't know there's an 's' in pants is because I'm not erudite enough."

"What does erudite mean?"

"Thus proving my point." Rory smiled happily as her boyfriend of a year came in. "Hi Dean."

"Hi Rory. Room for one more?"

Lorelai took her purse off of the chair between her and Rory and put it on the square table. "Thanks." Dean sat down in the now empty chair. "So what's up?"

"We're discussing pants."

"Of course. Why wouldn't you be?"

"So what's up with you?" Rory grabbed his hand. Lorelai pretended to gag.

"No much. I got an A on my last history test."

"Yay!" Rory leaned over and gave him a kiss. "I knew you could do it!"

"What could he do?" Luke asked as he came over.

"Ace his test."

"Mazol Tov. What'll you have?" Everyone ordered, and Luke wrote them down on his little pad of paper and went back to the kitchen to cook,

The conversation veered away from pants, and soon they were all eating contently.

While they ate, Kirk approached Luke. "Do you have a scrap of paper? I just had a stroke of comic genius for my movie and I don't want to forget it."

"I'm almost afraid to ask."

"I've decided to write, direct, and star in a feature length film," Kirk announced proudly.

Luke rolled his eyes, but nonetheless fished around in his pocket, coming up with the receipt he had been given earlier. "You can write on this."

Kirk took it and went back to his seat to record his idea and Luke went to go talk to Lorelai.

"Hi you," she said as he approached.

"Hi yourself. How are your dinners?" Everyone assured him they were good. Small talk insued for a few minutes between the four, broken by Dean having to leave for work. Rory walked with him, and Luke took her seat. He and Lorelai continued their conversation about absolutely nothing for a few more minutes.

Kirk came up to them a few minutes later. "I lost it," he said sadly.

Lorelai opened her mouth to ask what he was talking about, but Luke stopped her. "You don't want to know."

"By the way," Kirk added, "if you have a _problem_, you should just let us help you instead of trying to hide it by running iff to a different town."

"Yes Luke," Lorelai agreed. "You should let us help you with your problem. Kirk, what's Luke's problem?"

"I have no problem," Luke argued.

"He's addicted to painkillers," Kirk announced.

"Who's addicted to painkillers?" Miss Patty asked curiously, leaning over.

"Nobody," Luke told her. "Kirk, what are you rambling on about?"

Kirk held out the receipt Luke had given him. Miss Patty intercepted it. "He's right. These aren't for some headache, Luke. Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Because I don't have a pill problem." He grabbed the slip of paper back while Lorelai watched in amusement. "I've never even heard of this store. What is Duane Reade?"

"It's a drug store in New York," Lorelai replied. "When I was in New York seeing Rent, we stopped there to get some candy."

Luke stared at the record in his hand for a minute, then flipped it over and stared at the number written on it. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You should call," Lorelai said.

"I know." He got up and punched the number into his wall phone.

A male voice answered. "Hello?"

Luke wasn't sure what to say. He had just been expecting the girl from earlier to answer and he didn't remember her name.

"Hello?" the voice said again.

"Yeah, hi. Um, a girl was in here earlier, and she gave me this number." He gestured to Lorelai to come join him at the counter.

"Who was it?"

"Um, she had an English accent or something. Her name was..." he looked at Lorelai fo help.

"Karen," she supplied.

"Karen."

The boy laughed. "One minute."

Luke heard the boy call something, but it was too muffled to understand as his hand was over the mouthpiece.

"Mr. Danes?"

"Karen? Hi," Lorelai leaned closer in, trying to hear the conversation.

"It's Kimberly actually, but you're close enough. Is there something I can help you with?"

"I think we need to talk. Can you come to the diner?"

"I'll be there in ten minutes," she promised.

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Ten minutes later, as promised, Kimberly pulled open the door to Luke's Diner, where he and Lorelai (and everyone else) were waiting for her. "Hello Mr. Danes," she greeted as she sat down at the counter next to Lorelai. "You called?"

"I did." He handed her the receipt. "Who bought these?"

"I did," she answered. "That's why it was in my purse."

"You bought all this medicine? For who?"

"For...me. Is that all you needed?"

Luke opened his mouth, then clooseod it again as he couldn't think of what to say. Lorelai helped him out. "Where's Jess?"

"I don't know," she replied. "He runs off whenever anyone mentions coming here, so we can't make him come."

"But he's in Stars Hollow?" Luke was surprised.

"Don't worry, you don't have to see him," Kimberly assured him. "We just thought it would be a good idea for him to come back here."

"Why?"

She shook her head. "Long story."

Luke held out his hand. "I want to read that essay."

Kimberly pulled it out of her purse again, flipped it open to the third page, and handed it to him. She and Lorelai sat there ackwardly as he read. Unable to stand the silence, Lorelai turnd to her new acquantince. "So how's England?"

"I wouldn't know. I'm from Melbourne." Kimberly didn't take her eyes off of Luke, intent on making sure he didn't read more than she wanted him to.

"Australia?"

Now, Kimberly did briefly look away from look to roll her eyes at Lorelai. "As opposed to the other Melbournes you've visited?"

"Snarky," Lorelai observed. "You really are a friend of Jess."

She smiled. "Whatever you say Ms. Gilmore."

Lorelai stared at her. "How do you know my name? What did he say about me?"

"You don't want to know."

She made a pouty face at Luke "Luke..."

"Don't bother," Kimberly advised. "It's not in the part he's reading."

As the words left her mouth, her cell phone started buzzing. Luke glared at her and pointed to the no cell phone sign.

She opened the phone on her way out, even as Luke grumbled at her. "Hello?"

"Kimmy, where are you?"

"Jess? Hey. I'm actually at Luke's Diner."

"So you gave him the essay? Did he like it?"

"He's still reading it. How are you feeling?"

"Better."

"Whatever you say Jess. Did you need something?"

"Yeah, were're getting dinner. What do you want?"

Kimberly thought about it for a minute. "I'll just grab something from here. Will that be alright with everyone?"

"Hold on." Kimberly heard him put the phone down and ask the others if they would eat something from the diner. "Yeah, it'll be fine. See you later."

Kimberly clicked her cell phone closed and went back into the diner, where Luke was giving her a horrified look.

"What's wrong?" she asked with a sinking feeling.

Luke handed the papers back to her. "Where's my nephew?" he demanded.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: How Living In Stars Hollow Affected My Life

Author: Symphonyflute

Fandom: Gilmore Girls

Season: 2ish

Disclaimer: I wish, put it that way.

Summary: I changed the actual plotline of the story a little. In the episode towards the end of season 2, Luke sends Jess back to New York. He comes back in season 3 and all is well. I'm going to change that. He didn't go back, live happily with his mommy for a few weeks, and decide to pop back into Stars Hollow. Instead he had a terrible time including getting hurt, and homeless, and wrote a mandatory essay about what has affected his life most. This somehow, I'm not telling how, brings him and Luke, Lorelai, and Rory back together.

A/N: I hate OCs with flaming passion, and I put in 3. You're welcome.

A/N 2: I love reviews!

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"I told you, he's off somewhere in town." She really wanted to get out of there. "And I should probably go find him. So if you'll just give that back, I'll be on my way." She held out her hand, but he didn't hand it over. "Is something wrong?" She already knew the answer.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Luke was confused and stressed, trying to take in what he had just read. "Why didn't _he_ tell me?"

"You read extremely quickly," Kimberly noted.

"What's going on? Lorelai asked.

"He read past where I told him to," Kimberly told her. "As in the part Jess explicitly told me to keep him from reading." She frowned. "He's never going to forgive me."

"Explain," Luke demanded. "Now."

Kimberly sat down. If Jess and everyone else were already going to hate her, she had better get them food like she promised. "If I tell you, can we have half off four burgers? I'm supposed to get dinner."

"You can have them for free." Luke told Ceaser to start cooking, and then came around the counter and sat next to her. "Talk."

She struggled to think of where to start. "You sent him back to New York after breaking that girl's arm. Rory, right?" He nodded, and she continued. "So he had to go stay with his mom. His friends were all happy to see him, we missed him, but his mom's new husband? Not so much. He pretty much said it all, I don't really know how to explain it more."

"Try."

"Fine. So Chet, that's Liz's new husband. She's-"

"My sister," Luke supplied. "We've met."

"Right. So Chet's a pretty big guy. Significantly bigger than Jess anyway. So he'd push him around a little, punch him a few times, no big deal."

"No big deal?" Luke repeated. Lorelai just sat there in stunned silence.

"In the scheme of things. So Jess just puts up with it, because Liz loves this guy and if he gets kicked out of there, he'll have nowhere to go."

"But doesn't he-"

"I'm getting there," Kimberly interjected. "So one day Chet comes home completely plastered and starts beating on him. Only this time, it's not so much a few punches as a fight for your life kind of thing. So obviously Jess fights back. Lays one punch on him. That's when Liz comes in, sees him hit her husband, and demands he leave." She thought for a minute. "Demands he leave again, I guess. Only this time instead of sending him to his uncle," she gestured at Luke, "she just sends him away."

Ceaser put a styrofoam container on the counter, with four burgers and some frys.

"He went to Austin's house, that's the guy you talked to earlier, and Austin took one look at him and immediately took him to the ER." SHe paused to collect her thoughts. "He's my best friend, but your nephew's an idiot. Three broken ribs, a broken arm, and a concussion, and he still won't accept any help. Well, he ate dinner at my house, but that was it. I offered him my couch, Austin offered him his couch, everyone else did too and he cose to sleep on a bench outside, because he didn't want to need anyone. About two weeks later, he wrote that essay. Then a week after that, here we are."

"And he's been fine since then, right?"

Kimberly smiled somberly. "He's been just dandy. His cast is on for another month at least. He's lost a ton of weight from living on the streets with no food for almost a month. Oh, and he went home to get some stuff. You know, a blanket, clothes...Yeah, bad idea."

Luke cringed. "I want to see him."

"So?"

Luke looked annoyed. "What do you mean 'so'"?

"I mean who cares if you want to see him? He doesn't want to see you. Plus, you're not supposed to know any of that." She felt bad. Yeah, Jess wanted nothing to do with this situation, this town, or any of it's citizens, but Luke looked so sad. She sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you."

Glad for a chance to finally leave, Kimberly grabbed their dinner and fled. She walked the couple blocks to the park where their van was parked. Austin and his girlfriend Megan were sitting on a bench talking. Jess was streched out accross another. She forced herself to smile. :Dinner's here."

Austin looked up quickly. "Great, I'm starved. Hand it over."

She handed him the container and went to joing Jess. "Up and at 'um," she joked.

He bit back a groan and forced himself into a sitting position. "Hey Kimmy," he said in a hoarse voice. "What's the damage?"

How did he know? "What do you mean?" she asked in a squeaky voice.

"Money. How much did dinner set us back?"

"Oh," She giggled nervously. "Nothing. He gave it to us for free."

Austin walked the now half empty box over to them, as he and Megan had already grabbed their burgers. Jess grabbed one as the box went by him, and stared at Kimberly suspiciously. "What did you do?"

"Nothing," she lied. "What makes you think that?"

He rolled his eyes. "The fact that I've met you?"

She sighed again, realizing that it wasn't a good sign that she had sighed so many times in one day. "You called the cell phone." It was pretty much referred to as the cell phone, even though it was actually Austin's. They only had one among the four of them and shared it.

"Yes I did," he agreed.

"Luke has a rule against cell phones in the diner."

"Yes he does." Jess didn't like where this was headed.

"I'm so sorry Jess! I was only out for a few minutes, I don't know how he could have read it so fast."

"The entire thing?" Megan, evesdropping, exclaimed.

"The entire thing." Kimberly looked down at the ground, before slowly raising her gaze to meet Jess'. He didn't look mad. Stressed and upset, sure, but not mad.

"I told you it was a bad idea to come," he complained. "I told you to leave it alone, leave him out of this. But did any of you listen? No!"

"Calm down," Austin ordered, his gray eyes flashing.

Jess took a deep calming breath. "It's not your fault," he said slowly. "I shouldn't have called while you were there."

Kimberly was quiet for a minute. "He wants to see you," she said.

"No."

"Jess," Megan tried. "Maybe you should give-"

"No."

"Okay."

He stood up to go for a walk, grunting in pain as his once again sore ribs, thanks to running into Chet before they had fully healed, expressed their displeasure at moving. He walked stiffly to the other side of the park and sat down with his back against a tree.

His friends gave him a few minutes, then grew impatiant. Jess could hear footsteps, but didn't bother to look up.

"You have to go talk to him," Austin said.

Now Jess did look up, noting that the sun glinting of Austin's light brown hair looked like his mom's.

"I know." He ignored the hand his friend extended to help him and stood up shakily on his own. "Let's go."


End file.
